Service tray



Sept. 26, 1961 F. A. WENZEL SERVICE TRAY FiledApril 15, 1959 7 /W llllllllllllllll ll Y I I l L: I I v l l .55 5

ATTORNEY,

United States Patent Office 3,901,684 Patented Sept. 26, 1961 3,001,684 SERVICE TRAY Frederick A. Wenzel, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to St. Regis Paper Company, a corporation of New York Filed Apr. 13, 1959, Ser. No. 806,179 2 Claims. (Cl. 22928) This invention relates to improvements in a service tray of the type used for carrying food and beverages from a roadside stand, or the like, to a patron in an automobile, etc.

Such cartons must be made very inexpensively and are intended to be discarded after a single instance of use. Accordingly, it is conventional to make such trays out of paperboard. However, even in a paperboard tray, it is desirable that the tray be sufiiciently sturdy to withstand pressures tending to deform it and to provide in the tray several compartments variously adapted to receive and support beverage containers, receptacles for food items such as sandwiches, French fried potatoes, etc. Thus the preferred form of the tray will assume a threedimensional configuration having pockets for the reception of containers for beverages and food items, etc.

To avoid having to store and ship the trays in their relatively bulky three-dimensional form, the trays are adapted to be shipped to the food dispensing establishment in collapsed form and in such condition that they may be readily erected into their three-dimensional form for rapid handling by food dispensing personnel.

It is an object of the present invention to provide paperboard trays which may be readily erected from collapsed form and which, when erected, will assume an adequately rigid configuration for the proper support of containers for beverage and food items for the period required for such items to be consumed, whereafter the tray may be discarded.

In trays embodying the present invention the collapsed tray is prepared for service simply by erecting it along score lines and folding inwardly compartment-forming flaps which come into bracing relationship with wall panels of the tray, thus to hold the tray in erected position. The foregoing steps are very simple and may be readily performed without damage to the tray and will maintain the tray in a three-dimensional form until the tray has served its purpose.

The flaps aforesaid interlock with and straddle a central partition which separates various storage compartments. These flaps brace the carton laterally and interlock with the partition which is transverse to the bottom of the tray.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following disclosure in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tray embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the tray of FIG. 1 during the course of shifting it from collapsed to erected pcmition.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross section taken along the line 33 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary developed plan of the blank from which the tray of FIG. l is fabricated.

The blank for the disclosed embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 4. There is a relatively central top panel 33 having beverage container receiving Waste apertures 34 of generally conventional shape. The central top panel 33 is connected on score lines 35 to side wall panels 36, which are, in turn, connected on score lines 37 to the bottom wall panels 38, which, when folded, will overlap to provide the glue lap 39 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

An additional or intermediate wall panel 42 is provided 2 at the end of one of the bottom panels 38 and this wall panel 42 is notched out centrally at 43. The otherwise free marginal portions of notched wall panel 42 are further provided with glue lap flaps 44 which connect with the undersurface of the top panel 33, as best shown in FIG. 1.

Top panel 33 is provided with transverse scorelines 45 which define hinges upon which the bracing flaps 46 will pivot. Note that the cut lines 47 in the partition panel 42 substantially align with the score lines 45 in the top panel.

Flaps 46 are further defined by out lines 48, 49 and a waste space 50 between the cut lines 48. I also slit the flaps 46 along the cut lines 53 and oblique cut lines 54 which diverge from the end of slit 53 to provide notches 55 which help guide the slit 53 into frictional interlocking engagement with an obliquely ofiset strut portion 56 of the partition walls 42. Struts 56 are left in the partition portions 42 between cut lines 57 which are obliquely related to cut lines 47 aforesaid.

The blank of FIG. 4 is first formed into a collapsed tube adapted for convenient transport and storage. The tray may be readily erected through its FIG. 2 to its FIG. 1 position and the flaps 46 pivoted inwardly and downwardly about score lines 45 to the position thereof shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 in which the end margins 58 thereof abut the side panels 36 of the tray.

In the course of swinging the flaps 46 between their positions respectively shown in FIGS. 2 and 1, the slits 53 releasably and frictionally interlock with the oifset strut portions 56 of the partition wall panels 42. Flap portions at opposite sides of the slit 53 straddle the strut. The resilient interlock thus effected will preclude release of the flaps 46 unless they are forcibly disengaged from the struts 56.

Not only do the struts 56 provide an interlock with the flaps, but the margins of the flaps 46 along the out line 53 laterally abut strut 56 to further brace the tray against collapse.

Partitions 52 intervene between beverage container pockets defined by openings 34 and further help to brace the tray longitudinally.

I claim:

1. A blank for a compartmented service tray having end portions with beverage container support structure and an intermediate portion open to receive food items, said blank comprising a plurality of panels connected on score lines, one of said panels comprising a top for the tray, next adjacent panels at either side of said top panel comprising side walls for the tray and panels next adjacent to said side walls constituting bottom panels for the tray which overlap, one of said bottom panels having a partition panel which in the beverage container support end portions of the erected tray is parallel to said side panels, said partition panel being cut out centrally in the intermediate portion of the erected tray and having offset portions constituting struts, said top panel having transverse flaps foldable toward said bottom panels to define said intermediate portion, each such flap having a central slit which interlocks with the ofiset strut portion of the partition panel for interlocking said flaps in transverse relation to said side panels.

2. A compartmented service tray having end compartments with beverage container support structure and an intermediate food compartment bounded by said end portions, the compartments in the said end portions of the tray having spaced apart top and bottom panels and wall panels transverse to said topand bottom panels, said top panels having container receiving openings and flaps transverse to said wall panels and connected to said top panels on score lines on which said flaps fold to span between the top and bottom panel to define said intermediate portion of the tray, said flaps having portions in endwise abutment with said wall panels to brace the tray lateral- 1y, one of said wall panels comprising a partition connected in longitudinal'bracing'relation to said top and 5 bottom panels and spanning therebetween to subdivide each end portion, but being discontinuous across said intermediate portion, said one wall panel being provided adjacent its partition portions with oblique struts which intersect the plane occupied by the said flaps in their bracing position, said flaps having slits through-which said oblique struts are received, the margins of said flaps about said slits straddling the struts and'releasably interlocked therewith to maintain said flaps in bracing relation with said wall panels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 24,233 Goldberg Oct.30, 1956 2,076,844 Holmes Apr. 13, 1937 10 2,205,157 Schrell Jan. 18, 19 40 2,875,937 Vines Mar. 3, 1959 

